PS4 vs Xbox: Why I chose to buy the Xbox One

Unless you’ve been hiding in an airport with Snowden for the past few weeks you’ve probably heard about the recent release of the PS4 and the upcoming release of the Xbox One gaming consoles. This is a pretty exciting time for gamers such as myself. While I would love to own both of the new consoles, I’m trying out this whole “fiscally responsible adult” thing – so I’m just going to buy one expensive gaming system, haha. So why did I choose the Xbox One? Before I get to that, I want to mention that both consoles have their positives and negatives, and both are similar enough in their overall capabilities and offerings that I think it makes sense to go with whichever console maker you had from the previous generation. PS3 owners will probably love the PS4, and Xbox 360 owners are probably going to love the Xbox One. If you were a diehard PS3 fan chances are you are playing PS4 now and not reading this blog. If you have a 360 at home, chances are you’re reading up on the Xbox One game reviews in preparation for Friday. I was excited to get the chance to play my friend’s PS4 over the weekend and there were some really cool things it can do (such as livestreaming video game footage from your console to other consoles) that left me impressed. And to tell the truth, after Microsoft announced their DRM / used game policies in the summer AND the price was announced as $100 more than the PS4, I was ready to jump ship. So please don’t get the idea that I’m some PS4 hater.

And just for further validation that I like games in general, and am not some Microsoft crony, here’s my console gaming pedigree:

NES

SuperNES

Sega Genesis

Sega Saturn (yeah, that’s right)

Sony Playstation

Sega Dreamcast (uh huh)

Nintendo 64

Xbox

Playstation 2

Xbox 360

So back to the main story. Why did I chose the Xbox One? Let’s go ahead and break down both consoles to see how their components stack up to one another.

System hardware

As far as the system design itself, the PS4 gets points for style, size and weight. It has a smaller footprint and also doesn’t require an external power brick. The Xbox One is larger than the PS4, and also larger than its own predecessor, the Xbox 360. The good news for Xbox One (and PS4) is that both systems have been reported as running cool and quietly. As for the controller, both consoles made improvements over their previous generation, with the PS4 controller being a large improvement over the PS3 and the Xbox controller being a small improvement over the already highly-regarded Xbox 360 controller. New features for the PS4 controller include a touchpad and on the Xbox there are highly sensitive rumble motors (sounds dumb but has gotten positive reviews). For me personally, the system design itself is not the biggest deal – the controller is a bit more important for me because thats what I’m going to be holding. I liked the Xbox 360 controller a lot more than the PS3 controller so while both are improved in this new generation, I still have to lean towards Xbox One.

TLDR: Xbox One wins

User Interface

While I haven’t used the Xbox One yet, I did try out the PS4 and after using the operating system on it I came away unimpressed. Reviews for the Xbox One operating system have been mostly positive, with many sites agreeing that Microsoft has done a better job with their operating system. Not to mention the deep integration of the Kinect which allows for instantaneous switching between, and controlling, apps and games using your voice. PS4 does have some voice control but Xbox has them beat in voice commands (see comparison video in the Camera section below). To be fair, reviews have reported mixed results as far as the consistency of the Kinect recognizing the voice commands – chances are this will be improved with software updates. The PS4 may gain more voice control through updates. Both systems can switch between games and apps, and resume games very quickly. The Xbox OS does allow for switching between more apps before you have to close one than the PS4 because of how the software was designed (I believe there are two operating systems running in tandem on Xbox). The Xbox OS also allows for snapping an app to the side of the screen so you can do two things at once, ie play a game and surf a website, listen to music, or a number of other things that the ADHD generation might enjoy.

TDLR: Xbox One wins

Graphics

Ah, graphics. To some people, this is the most important part of a console. While I would agree graphics are VERY important for a gaming console, having the most powerful graphics on paper is not. Last generation the PS3 was said to have superior graphics capabilities but the truth of the matter is, when it came to comparing the same title on each console, you had a 50-50 chance as to which one would look better. At the end of the day it was on the developers. This early in the console’s cycle, the graphics have not really reached what the next generation is capable of for either system. With the PS4 and Xbox One, the graphical gap between some launch titles does seem wider than in the previous generation. I don’t think there is any doubt that the PS4 has better specs for pushing sheer numbers of polygons or pixels. There has been a lot of talk of 1080p and/or 60fps, and the Xbox’s inability to handle that on games, while the PS4 can (see COD: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Assassin’s Creed 4). Many of the reviews I’ve read mention in side-by-side comparisons, PS4 does look better. You can see some side by side comparisons in the video embedded below (make sure to watch in full screen and high resolution). Another reoccurring theme I’ve read is that the Xbox One is still such an improvement over the 360/PS3, and the difference between the 1080p or 720p resolutions is not major enough to make them prefer one console version outright over another (considerations such as the system’s controller still come into play, for example). Also, Forza 5 and Ryse, both exclusives for the Xbox One, are some of the best looking games out now on either system.

TLDR: PS4 wins

(Launch) Games

So like I said before I’m a gamer. I like games. I have no problem admitting both systems will have some amazing exclusive titles coming up. So I don’t see the point of trying to compare all the possible exclusives coming out for either system – that comes down to which one someone prefers. But if we’re comparing launch titles, the consensus I’ve read (sorry I don’t feel like collecting sources for every thing I’ve read haha) say that the PS4 exclusive launch titles are nothing to write home about. The Xbox One reviews are coming in this week and while not a LOT better than the PS4 titles, they do seem to be doing better. This is according to reviews. The joke for the past week or so has been that the PS4’s highest rated game is Flower. And yes, its about a flower. Killzone, the exclusive PS4 shooter, while pretty, has not gotten high reviews. I’m going with the cross-platform Battlefield 4 as the top FPS out right now. Personally the Xbox One line-up seems stronger. I am more interested in Forza 5, Dead Rising 3, Ryse and Killer Instinct than Flower, Resogun, and Sound Shapes – the highest rated exclusive PS4 games (all indie games, interestingly).

TLDR: Xbox wins

Camera

Since both systems have cameras available, its fair to compare them. It should be apparent the anyone that follows gaming news that, just like the PS4 is more graphically capable, the Kinect camera is superior to the PS Eye.

Here is an older video that shows some other capabilities of the Xbox OS and Kinect voice control (apparently software accuracy has been improved since this video was made, as you can see demoed in the above link)

TLD…. yeah Xbox wins

Multimedia

Both systems are lacking in any kind of real multimedia support at the moment. Both can play Blurays and audio CDs but thats about it. No support for playing any media from drives you might plug in. Xbox can stream music from a Windows PC – I’m not sure if PS4 currently has that capability. Both systems will surely be adding multimedia capabilities in the future. Xbox does have an advantage in that it has HDMI in and so you can plug in your cable line directly into the Xbox and use the Xbox to control your tv and cable surfing. Apparently there are still some kinks to work out but it is a feature that is not available on PS4. PS4 does have livestreaming of game footage via Twitch, which is very very cool. Microsoft had promised this feature before the launch of the Xbox One and has announced they will be adding this feature in early 2014. So that is a temporary victory for PS4 but overall Xbox is winning in multimedia.

TLDR: Xbox wins

So there you have it. Out of the 6 categories I could think of that cover the aspects of the game consoles, PS4 wins 1 and Xbox wins 5. Although having slightly better graphics is nice, I think Xbox One is the right choice for me.

Let me know what your next gen plans are in the comments. Got a PS4? Getting an Xbox One? Waiting till your tax refund comes in the spring to get one?

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9 thoughts on “PS4 vs Xbox: Why I chose to buy the Xbox One”

As far as I’m concerned both these systems are at parity performance-wise. The reason why i chose the ps4 over is as follows:

1.) I’ll be honest the only reason I really have a console is for first party games (my heart lies with my PC) and I’ve always felt the Sony catalog has resonated more with me. I really like the naughty dog games (“jak and daxter” on the ps2 through uncharted and the last of us on ps3) as well as what’s been coming out of Suckerpunch and Sony Santa Monica (inFamous/God of War series respectively). Additionally, I’ve also really liked a lot of the smaller games that Sony’s published on PSN like Flower and Journey and Sony’s very public promotion of the indie game community is something that’s resonated with me. Lastly, I’ve always really liked some of these niche games that have come out of Japan like the variety of JRPGs (i.e: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch) or just something really weird like Tokyo Jungle (http://youtu.be/zasefwWK5fA for real check this ish out it’s suuuper weird). These aren’t really games that Microsoft has any interest in bringing to their platform, nor do the developers of these games really care to do so.

I owned a launch OG Xbox and a launch Xbox 360 and I ended up selling both of them before the end of their respective lifecycles because the first party games Microsoft’s been pushing never really resonated with me. I never really liked Halo or Gears of War. I always felt Gran Turismo gave me a comparable experience to Forza. I feel that Sony pushed a lot more first party content toward the entire PS3 lifecycle whereas Microsoft’s strategy has shifted more towards investing in DLC exclusivity instead of pushing out new gaming experiences.

2.)
As you may know PSN has been free on PS3 but now in order to have full online functionality playstation plus is required. If you told me this 3 or 4 years ago I’d probably be pretty pissed but over the last few years Sony’s pushed a lot of free games out through the service available to subscribers. One PS+ subscription is going to work across all Sony platforms. As someone who’s already invested in the Sony ecosystem I think I’m going to get access to free PS3 and PS4 games every month that will stay with me as long as I’m a subscriber. If I’m going to have to pay a fee to play games online I stand to gain a lot more by staying with Sony.

3.)
As someone who doesn’t actually have an income source paying an extra $100 essentially for a camera I don’t want to use instead of on a full retail game and a year of Playstation+. You gave the edge to the xbox in the camera department and you’re correct the new kinect is better the the PS camera. However, in my book not having to pay for a camera at all if I don’t want to gives the PS4 an advantage.
I also don’t really find the tv functionality to be appealing enough to warrant the extra money either. I can already press my tv/video button once to get to tv if I want. Additionally, other than sports I don’t ever actually watch live tv. I don’t have cable right now since I’m living on my own but when I did have cable access I was DVRing the hell out of everything or just watching stuff online.

Final Thoughts.)

In the end I feel like microsoft didn’t make their console for me. They’re selling the Xbox One as a multimedia hub that happens to play games and I’m really only concerned with the games. I’m not blind to the fact both of these companies are just trying to make a buck. I made my decision with the hope that Sony’s going to give me what I want for the next 7 years, not just for launch day. In the end competition is going to end up benefiting consumers by holding these companies more accountable.

Thanks for the comment! All are very good points. Sounds like we are in agreement in some areas, but mainly that the systems are similar enough so that sticking with whatever you had before (PS3 or Xbox 360) makes sense. I’m fairly happy with the xbox exclusives but I do def agree about the support from Japan (or lack thereof) on the Xbox. Maybe MS will work on that this generation… but PS4 has a big head start there either way. But not liking HALO? Blasphemy 😛
Also I agree about PSN – they have been giving away some great games this year. Xbox is trying to catch up on the “free” games but the games they are giving are subpar. BUT you do get to OWN those games on xbox live vs renting on PSN. Of course renting a great game is probably better than owning a subpar game. In the past the PSN network/multiplayer support for games could not compare to xbox live but Sony is looking to improve that this generation and I think the charge for PSN has a lot to do with that initiative.
I see what you mean about the camera. I think I will enjoy the functionality and the future potential of the Kinect but I understand if you just want to use the controller and play some games.
What games are you playing on there now?

I don’t imagine not having a ps+ account so in my book I do have ownership of th

My ps4 was actually dead on arrival so im currently not playing anything atm lol. I got a refund and i’ll repurchase sometime down the line. I wanted a release day console to get a piece of that day 1 excitement. I’m probably going to wait til January to repurchase. I was going to get killzone shadowfall and I really liked the way resogun looked.

Also on me not liking halo: I never really liked the pace of the game. I always felt like movement was too sluggish for my taste. That beibg said I’m looking forward to seeing how Destiny turns out.

Oh man that sucks, sorry to hear it was broken. That’s the only thing I’m worried about right now with getting the system at launch. I was initially planning on waiting but since the release date is around my birthday it worked out.

They both are pretty much equal … more or less… neither is any significant amount better than the other. Media is a let down as MKV is open source and probably will not be supported … but a WD Media Player for $90 solves that issue nicely.

It really comes down to two things, honestly…

Ergonomics – playing for hours and hours, ergonomics is an important thing… and it’s also very relative to the player.

Exclusives – I disagree with only considering launch day exclusives. If a person is in “one or the other” situation, then the person SHOULD look at the extended exclusives list to see what they have to look forward to over the next couple of years.

Personally, when it came to XBox360 and PS3, I feel PS3 had a substantial lead in exclusives. That being said, I haven’t looked at the lists for these new consoles.

True consoles are more than just launch games but I don’t feel like enough exclusive titles have been officially announced to have any kind of meaningful debate about those games at this time either, which is why I judged based on the current game selection